Braised Baby  Baby Bok Choy

What’s Growing This Week; Green Garlic · Apples—-# · Navel Oranges Oroblanco Grapefruit · Butternut Squash · Carrots (M, L) · Broccoli (M, L) Escarole (M, L) · Meyer Lemons (M, L)—% · Salad mix (S) · Leeks (L) Potatoes (L)

THE B(OK CH)OY IN THE BUBBLE

At the EcoFarm Conference I attended in late January, one panel discussion was devoted to the ever-increasing body of scientific research  showing that organically grown food is more nutritious than that grown conventionally (Disclaimer:  it is healthier to eat conventional fruits and vegetables than to not eat any).  Theories abound, and none of them has been conclusively proven.  But one hypothesis prevails:  organically grown crops, whether trees, vegetables, or grains, have a harder life.  They have to work to pull their nutrients from the soil, and they have to build better immune systems to protect themselves from bugs and diseases.  This in turn concentrates the nutrients, as well as produces more of the compounds such as antioxidants that are so beneficial to humans.

For an organic farmer, this concept begins with the idea of a healthy soil and ends with the food being prepared and eaten in a healthful way by healthy people.  Our conventional food system, although it does produce healthy foodstuffs, turns those crops into borderline toxic food products (toxic due to lack of nutrition, not necessarily pesticides) that sicken the people who eat them.  Then we rely on a bunch of chemicals (pharmaceuticals) to keep these unhealthy people functioning so that  they can perform their most important role as productive consumers who keep our economy humming.  In other words, the eater is treated the same way as the soil, the plants, and the livestock.

Like the parents of kids who eat organic food, organic farmers have differing interpretations of how to best raise their little ones.  We have rules about what we have to do (build the soil) and what we can’t do (use synthetic pesticides or fertilizers).  But that leaves a huge range of decisions to be made on a daily, monthly, and yearly basis.  At the January conference, I heard one apple grower talk about how “neat and clean” types gravitated towards growing vegetables while “slobs” were better suited to planting fruit trees.  As if to illustrate the point, a vegetable crops advisor from Salinas talked about how important “sanitation” was to growing vegetables.  By this he meant hauling the weeds out of the field and disposing of them in dumpsters to keep their seeds out of your field.

Perhaps I should be growing just fruit trees and not vegetables.  As anyone who knows me can attest, I am not a neat freak.  On a personal level that means I shower every day but my desk and pickup are a mess.  On the farm, our packing shed and cold box are kept clean and neat, but … the idea of hauling weeds away in the dumpster strikes me as absurd.  Heck, half the time we just let them keep growing.

We don’t baby the vegetables at Terra Firma, even the Baby Bok Choy.  From my perspective we have 30 human employees as well as millions of plants working for us.  If we give them a good working environment (soil, water, climate) and provide them with the right amount of supervision (planting, timely weeding, etc.) done at the right time, they should be able to do most of the work themselves.  Occasionally, they will fail at their jobs.  But when they do, we probably bear part or all of the responsibility — a missed cultivation, planting them too late or too early, choosing the wrong variety, etc.  The rest of the time, we blame the weather.

When it comes to weeds, for example, we control them when our crops are small and vulnerable.  But once they get to a certain size, I stop worrying about it and let them duke it out with whatever weeds are in the field.  So when we begin harvesting a crop, there are usually weeds in the field.  And when we are done harvesting the crop, some of them have gone to seed.  And those seeds get mowed and worked into the soil, along with the plants that produced them.  Some of those seeds will sprout later, and cause us some headaches.  But I also believe that our vegetables are better off for having had to compete with the weeds a bit.

Now, research is now showing that many weeds play other beneficial roles in a farm ecosystem.  Some have roots that break up hardpan soil.  Others concentrate certain mineral nutrients in their leaves and make them available to other plants when they die and break down.  Still others attract beneficial insects that end up helping the crop plants.

I don’t expect too see a big investment in research in this area.  Most studies will continue to show how chemical use can improve farm yields and help “feed the world”.  Just as there will always be more money for developing new miracle drugs than there is for basic nutrition education.

For now, I’m happy to have any proof that my parenting — I mean farming — methods build character in the veggies.  Nutritional character!

IN YOUR BOXES

I have received a few emails asking for a detailed “Produce 101” on Escarole.  Escarole is one of the few leafy green vegetables that can be eaten raw or cooked.  It is related to lettuce, and looks a lot like that plant, but the leaves are always slightly bitter; when it is warm, they tend to be more bitter.  The outside leaves of the head are tougher and more bitter, while the blanched inner leaves are more tender and sometimes almost sweet.  Taste a leaf from the blanched heart before you decide whether to use it in a salad.

When cooked, escarole retains some of its crunch, but also soaks up liquid.  This makes it a good green to use in soup; it also makes a nice base for a “sauceless” pasta dish such as the recipe on the right.  In general, escarole seems to go well with strong flavors like lemon juice or lemon oil, bacon, anchovies, olives, etc.  It pairs well with soft textures like beans, risotto, pasta, certain fish, and polenta.

The Grapefruit in this week’s boxes are the Oroblanco variety.  Like the Melogolds, these are a cross between a yellow grapefruit and a Pomelo, but they are juicer and paler than their cousins — and perhaps a touch less sweet.  Normally, they are also smaller, but this year the trees produced some of the largest grapefruit I’ve ever seen — bigger even than pomelos for that matter.  Many of the Oroblancos have a loose rind that is easy to peel, making them a good choice for use in a salad as well as eating out of hand.

Please make sure to include your account name, the one on the sign off sheet ? on the box, in every correspondance to Valerie

Recipes............................

CSA membership fees ~payment due day is first of month.~~ Quarterly discounts are given for any 3 month period only if paid in advance.
They are given as an extra credit when the payment is applied, you won't see your monthly rate change.
 

For mid-month changes,  Up/downgrades are $5 per week per increment.  Small to large is $10.

Vacations ? Billing Inquiries
We need seven days notice before a vacation hold or other change of service.
Contact Valerie through voicemail at (530) 756-2800, or e-mail Goldenbell@aol.com.  Include your account name in full (what's on the sign off sheet).

Account Balance Inquiries The account sheet is hiding under the sign off sheet each week with your account balance on it.  Mid month I've been e-mailing statments, so if you're not getting it send me an e-mail requesting to be added to the list. To be able to read the statements you need to be logged in as an administrator on a PC, and virus programs may corrupt the file. Some Mac operating systems do allow the file to be viewed.  We can't resend them, and it wouldn't work any better the second time anyway.

MAILING ADDRESS:
Terra Firma Farms, Inc
P.O. Box 836
Winters, CA 95694
(530) 756-2800
www.terrafirmafarm.com
Goldenbell@aol.com

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